Laying Down Our Burdens: Not a Religious Quest; Just Let Love Rule in Your Hearts

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 15, 2024
3 Advent, C
Philippians 1:3-11
Canticle 16
Luke 3:1-6

Lay down your burdens. That was at the heart of John’s call for people to repent and be baptized. Now, I know it didn’t sound that way with all of the “brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come” business, but laying down our burdens is ultimately what we are doing when we follow John’s call to repent and begin again.

Folks were coming to John from all around, and they were journeying far. This was not just a stop by your local curb mart a few blocks away. This was for some a days-long journey, a holy pilgrimage almost, and as they traveled, they carried heavy burdens with them. I don’t just mean the food and shelter they had brought for the journey.

Each person making that journey out into the wilderness to see John was carrying with them the burdens of their whole lives. All the things that were weighing on their hearts. Their sorrows. Their worries. Their fears. They carried all of these heavy burdens with them on the way.

Of course they were also carrying burdens they knew little or nothing about. Their selfishness. Their lack of concern for others. Their blindness to their own faults. Those were the burdens John was talking about when he called them, “vipers.”

You gotta love John. These people had traveled out into the wilderness to see him, and when they arrived, John didn’t welcome them and invite them to rest their weary souls. No, John called them a “brood of vipers.”

“Brood of vipers?” They thought, “But, but, but we’re the special people. We’re children of Abraham. We’re God’s wonderful, happy favorites. This baptism is just reaffirming how great we are, right? We’ve come to you for baptism to show how fantastic we are, right John?”

Nope, that was not John’s message. In fact, John asked everyone, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” I’m sure the one guy piped up, “Um, nobody? God’s wrath is supposed to be for everyone else?” John let them know in no uncertain terms that they too are liable to God’s wrath for all of those burdens they knew nothing about.

“Well, then what are we supposed to do?” They asked.

I love this question and answer, because you can see the wheels turning in their minds. They were probably thinking they needed to do some big religious gesture, like Baptism followed by some super prayer, fasting, altar sacrifice thing for the next six months. The people were like Naaman, the Assyrian, centuries before, who had leprosy and had heard there was a prophet, Elisha, in Israel who could heal him. When he went to Elisha to be healed, he expected he’d be given some grand and glorious quest, and instead, Elisha sent a servant and said, “Just tell him to go wash in the Jordan river.”

Naaman was angry because the healing process was so simple. “That’s not even a good river,” he said. “Ours are much better,” but folks convinced him to wash, and he was healed of his leprosy. Such a simple thing, wash and be clean.

For the people of Israel seeking John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, it was also really simple. “What are we supposed to do?” They asked. “Stop cheating people,” John said. “Stop stealing from others. A lot of you have more than you need; try giving some of what you have to others who don’t have enough. If you’re jealous of what others have, groovy, but threatening folks to get more out of them ain’t the way to go.”

What John had to say to people was very, very simple. You don’t need a religious quest. Just be kind to others, stop seeing them as your enemy, and let love rule in your hearts.

That’s the laying down of our burdens. We get so stressed out and worried about life that we forget very basic things like be kind to others and let love rule in your hearts. Like the folks who came to see John, when we get stressed, worried, and fearful, we get kinda dumb, and we have to be taught or retaught simple things like, “Don’t cheat people out of their money.” “Stop stealing from folks.”

Starting with that reminder, not to treat others badly, and taking note of how we have been, that is the beginning of laying down our burdens. When we lay down our self-reliance and care about others again, then begin to rely on God again, casting our worries upon God, rather than feeding our fears.

“Bear fruits worthy of repentance,” John said. That call is not just to come be baptized. Baths are great, don’t get me wrong. Ritual baths, also wonderful. Whether you just get some water sprinkled on your head or you get fully submerged in a pool or ocean of water, Baptism is wonderful. It marks a new beginning.

The call, however, is not just to mark that new beginning, ask for Jesus’ help, and then go on with life just as you had before. If we’re thinking that after baptism, “God’s gonna change things, even though I won’t,” that’s not gonna work. That’s like laying down our burdens, being washed from the grime of carrying them, and then just picking them right back up to continue on.

The call of John, and the call of Jesus today is to change how you live and to let God change your life. Lay down the burdens of fear and anger. Lay down the burdens of treating others badly. Then choose something different to carry.

Pick up the light load that Jesus offers. Different reactions than anger, a different mindset than all about me. The light load that Jesus offers is to rely on God, not on your own strength. The light load that Jesus offers is to be kind and caring towards others, not to be tough, and strong, and intimidating. The light load that Jesus offers is to be a person of peace.

There’s nothing huge or extraordinary about the light load that Jesus offers. You don’t need to become a Bible scholar. You don’t need to be the most Jesus-worshipping religiousy person in the room.

Repenting, laying down your burdens, choosing a different way, and letting God change your life, is actually really simple. Paul laid it out pretty well is his letter to the Philippians as we heard today.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:3-11)

When we know forgiveness, we know salvation.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 8, 2024
2 Advent, C
Philippians 1:3-11
Canticle 16
Luke 3:1-6

Have you ever felt guilty about something you did? Ever felt bad about hurting someone, even if they didn’t know it, you lied or cheated, and betrayed someone’s trust or love? Have you then ever been forgiven by the one you’ve harmed for the things you’ve done?

If so, then you know the immense release that comes with forgiveness. The healing that goes on inside of us when we are forgiven, and our guilt recedes, and a weight is lifted because the one we have harmed has restored us to being ok. We’re no longer wracked with guilt. We’re no longer separated from one another. We’ve been restored to the possibility of love between one another. That is salvation.

The problem we see that needs fixing, from the Eden onward, is our disconnection from God and disconnection from one another. As we hurt one another, we pull away from one another, we put up barriers and shields to keep us safe. We walk around with anger in our hearts, showing others that we’re tougher than are so they won’t hurt us. We walk around with fear in our hearts pulling away from others before they have a chance to hurt us.

We see one another as threats, knowing that we’re often right, that others are threats, but mostly because they see us as threats.

We compete with one another out of scarcity for money, jobs, food, shelter. Since we feel we can’t trust others, we tend to go for winner take all, the American Dream of being billionaires while others work for them without enough to pay rent. Even further disconnection.

In our disconnection and mistrust, we turn to drugs, sex, alcohol, and anything else we can in order to feel better or not to feel at all. Those things don’t help, but they disconnect us even further. Angry, afraid, disconnected lives, seeing others as enemies to be feared or conquered…does that sound to anyone like Hell on Earth? That's because it is.

Disconnection is the Hell on Earth we know all too well. Salvation, then, is reconnection, reconnection with God and reconnection with one another.

John the Baptist went out into the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and we are told that John did this so that people would know salvation through forgiveness of their sins.

Forgiveness brings us reconnection, and reconnection is salvation from the Hell on Earth that we so often live. When we are restored to one another through repentance and forgiveness, we’re no longer separated from one another, and we are restored to the possibility of love between one another. That is salvation.

When we know forgiveness, we know salvation. 

So, as followers of Jesus, our way of life is the way of forgiveness. Ideally, we follow the way of forgiveness because we actually know the healing and salvation that forgiveness bring. Some folks maybe don’t.

Some folks might say, “no,” to the question, have they ever felt guilty about something they did. Some may be too afraid to face it or admit it. Some are so self-absorbed that they fail to recognize the harm they’ve caused, and some may even be so self-important that they wouldn’t even care much about the harm they’ve done to others even if they did recognize it.

In any case, for folks who refuse to feel guilt or who won’t or are just too unaware to feel guilt, it may be hard to really understand the salvation given by God. Perhaps that’s why John’s baptism wasn’t just a baptism of forgiveness, but a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

With repentance, we first have to understand the harm we’ve done, actually care about those we’ve harmed. Then, we repent. We change our ways. We seek to make amends and bring healing where we can to those we’ve hurt. Repentance and then forgiveness of sins. That brings about healing and restoration. Repentance and forgiveness together are our way of life, the way of healing and love.

Unfortunately, it often feels like we’ve largely divorced repentance and God’s forgiveness from this life and made it all about avoiding punishment after this life. Then we’ve further made rules out of Jesus forgiveness. Don’t feel guilty about anything you’ve done in this life? No problem. Just believe in Jesus, and he’ll forgive you. Don’t believe in Jesus, but you seek to bring about healing through repentance and forgiveness? Well, too bad, since you don’t believe in Jesus, God is going to punish you anyway.

Here's the deal with Jesus and God’s forgiveness. Yes, God forgives us. Yes, we are given forgiveness through Jesus. Yes, we are assured of punishment for the wicked, and at the same time, yes, we get to rest secure in God’s love for us and God’s forgiveness of us. How do we fit God’s punishment of the wicked together with God’s forgiveness and love? We fit God’s punishment and God’s forgiveness and love together with trust and faith.

We trust in God’s punishment, because sometimes, when we don’t realize or don’t care about the people we’ve harmed, we need God’s punishment to give us a kick in the tail, and we need God’s forgiveness and love because that is where healing and reconnection happens. When we truly feel the weight of how we’ve harmed others, and we repent and seek amendment, we feel the release and healing of forgiveness, we have salvation here on earth.

God will one day restore all things, restoring this world so that there will be no more Hell on Earth; there will be no more of us harming one another and disconnecting from one another. One day we will all be restored, God will wipe away every tear from every eye, and we will live fully in the peace and love of restoration with God and one another.

In the mean time, God’s forgiveness and love gets to be lived. We get to live the gift of forgiveness choosing and working to release anger and hurt, to release the debt that is owed, and let forgiveness rule in our hearts. As we do, we know salvation.

We Don’t Have to Live That Way

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
July 14, 2024
Proper 10, B
Amos 7:7-15
Psalm 85:8-13
Mark 6:14-29

King Herod had a right rough time of it, didn’t he? He was king of an occupied nation; semi-autonomous, kinda; and he was supposed to be leading his people according to the ways of God, even as he was trying to keep Rome happy and the people from rising up against Rome. He of course, then had his courtiers and officials to placate, his influence to maintain, all of which was meant to help him lead his people well according to the ways of God…giving Herod the benefit of the doubt.

With the pressure of all of those forces upon him, Herod seemed to be straying a bit from the ways of God. He wasn’t supposed to have married his brother’s wife, but hey, he was king. He had a lot of pressures on him. He had to be given some slack with such a big job. Then, when his wife wanted John imprisoned, well, he had to go along with what she wanted. He couldn’t have a split in his royal household, could he? How would that look to Rome and to his courtiers and officials? So then finally, when he gave his oath to Herodias’ daughter for anything she wanted and she asked for John’s head, how could he refuse? He had the pressures of all of these forces weighing on him, and John was, after all, just one weirdo, poor-boy prophet with no power or stature to compete with the powerful people of influence all around Herod. 

So, he had John executed for peacefully speaking out against the crown, beheaded on the whim of a young alluring girl and her mom. Trying to lead his people well, amidst so many powerful forces and the pressure of everything weighing on him, he led his people further down the path of destruction, going ever further from the ways of God in order to keep his people free to follow the ways of God. Oddly enough, God wasn’t particularly fond of that approach.

As with kings hundreds of years before him, God wasn’t overly fond of the powerful oppressing the week for the sake of some perceived greater good. If only Herod could keep the powerful and influential happy with him, then he’d have power enough to do the right things for Israel. Rather than be a light to those powerful and influential people, showing them a better way, and maybe disappointing them, however, Herod chose injustice and oppression. 

In the days of the prophet Amos, kings of Israel had been doing the same thing, and God had had enough of it then too. Amos starts with God’s indictments against. The nations around Israel, followed by an indictment against Israel herself, for the injustice and oppression she had been living. We heard part of God’s words against Israel for her injustice through the prophet Amos today. “See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

The king and the priest weren’t real thrilled with hearing that, and they threatened Amos. John wasn’t the first prophet who was condemned for speaking out against the injustices and atrocities of people in power, and Herod wasn’t the first leader to bow to the pressure upon him and do terrible things. He certainly wasn’t the last.

So, what about us and our lives? I think most of us could find plenty of leaders and rulers nowadays and apply this lesson to them. We could find all sorts of Herods doing all sorts of terrible things, turning away from the ways of God and following the ways of injustice, oppression, and bowing to pressures all around. I’d further guess that folks all along the political spectrum could hear my words thus far and think I’m preaching against the particular politicians or candidates they don’t like. 

I’m not. 

I’m not preaching for or against our governmental powers. They all have their place in seeking justice and wellbeing for all, but when I look for how to heal damage from the Herods in our world beheading the John the Baptists in our world, I don’t look to our government because Jesus didn’t set up our government to live out God’s mission in the world. Jesus set up his church to live out God’s mission. 

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us and to all of God’s church to live out God’s mission of justice, peace, reconciliation, and love. 

The work is ours to do with God’s help. Our challenges in doing the work are many. The pressures on us all are many. Families to care for. Jobs. Places to live. Much to lose. Friends and co-workers, family, neighbors, whom we want to keep good relationships with, and living out the work of God’s mission of justice, peace, reconciliation, and love can have challenges for all of that.

Heck, I offered a prayer on Facebook last night, which I almost never do. At this point, I tend to reserve Facebook for the proverbial cat videos, just offering something lighthearted and fun. After the assassination attempt on former president Trump last night, I offered prayers for him, giving thanks that he was ok, prayers for all who were keeping people safe, prayers for those who had died, and even prayers for the shooter. Prayers for peace, for love, and for healing. 

I got one comment on the prayer, which noted that I hadn’t offered prayers after the hurricane and other recent events, and so I was turning Trump into an idol. Now, I understand what he was saying. There’s a lot of folks who seem to think that if their candidate doesn’t win, the world will crumble. That’s not why I was offering that prayer. It was not about supporting Trump or not supporting Trump. I offered the prayer because I wanted to help lead people in prayer, particularly with so much anger and animosity in the nation today.

When I offered that prayer, I wasn’t turning Trump into an idol. In fact, the man who tried to kill Trump turned himself into an idol. The gunman had pressure on him. He apparently thought a Trump presidency wouldn’t be good, and he felt the pressure of that so intensely, that he went Herod’s route. He felt the world would be terrible if it didn’t go the way he knew was right, and so he decided to force his way on the world. It's not his world. It wasn’t Herod’s world. It’s not any of our world.

Whoever wins the presidency, I’m pretty sure it’s still gonna be God’s world. Our faith is in God, not in any presidential candidate, not in any government, and certainly not in ourselves to force our will and our way onto the world. That would be to turn ourselves into idols, which is what Herod did.

Faced with pressures from Rome, pressures from his own people, pressures from his family, pressures from his officers and courtiers, Herod decided to kill a man so that he could keep his own power and influence to try to make as much of the world go the way he wanted as possible. 

Where do we find good news in this story of Herod’s self-idolatry? We find good news in Herod being a dark, opposite reflection of the good news. We realize, we don’t have to live as Herod lived. 

We look to Jesus who chose not to force his will on the world. With the pressure of Rome threatening Israel, Jesus chose not to start an insurrection. He knew Rome was going to destroy the nation of Israel, and he let it happen. He’d been offered power over all of the nations of the world in his temptation by Satan in the wilderness, and Jesus turned that power down. He wasn’t going to force his way on the world through violence, and destruction, injustice, and oppression. 

Jesus chose instead to live the way of love, the way of justice, mercy, peace, and reconciliation. Jesus worked to invite and influence as many people as he could to join him in living the way of love, in living the way of justice, mercy, peace, and reconciliation. His faith wasn’t in Rome or any governmental power. His faith was in God and the ways of love that are God.

For us, our faith is not in any governmental power. Fearful as many are, fearful as some of us may be, that the country is going to hell in a handbasket or that if one person or another gets elected that the country will go to hell in a handbasket, we don’t have to bow to that fear and those pressures as Herod did. We don’t have to make ourselves into idols.

We can instead follow the way of Jesus. We can accept that the wrong people just may get elected. We can accept that terrible things may happen to institutions that we love. Our faith in not in those institutions, and it isn’t our world to force our will upon. We are not God. Our faith is not in ourselves and our own power. Our faith is in God, and we get to live the ways of God, the way of love, of justice, mercy, peace, and reconciliation. 

Repairing the World, a Cold and Broken Hallelujah

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
December 10, 2023
2 Advent, Year B
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
Mark 1:1-8

In one of my favorite TV shows, called Angel, the main character, Angel, is fighting for redemption from his terrible past, and he’s doing so by battle all kinds of forces of darkness in the world. He fights demons, monsters, even regular street toughs. Anyone who preys on and harms others, he’s battling to stop them.

As he goes, the true forces of darkness, the demonic forces try over and over to stop him, and as they keep failing, they decide instead to break his spirit. They meet with him and tell him there’re going to take him to their home, where he can fight them on their own turf and probably die.

So he is taken to their home by a kind of demon guide, and when he opens the door, Angel is led back to regular old Earth, onto the streets of the city where he lived. His guide explains that the forces of darkness made the Earth their home long ago, and they aren’t battling to win. They just persist. Angel had been striving for some ultimate victory, some final battle to rid the Earth of the forces of darkness once and for all, and he is told that he will never be able to do so because for the forces of darkness, there is no goal, no victory. For the forces of darkness, there the pain and suffering they cause, and the next person, and the next person, and the next person to inflict with that pain and suffering.

Well, at this point, Angel pretty well gives up. His spirit is indeed broken, he turns on his friends, and decides there is no point to anything he does. Later, in the midst of his despair, he begins to realize that while he may not be able to win against the forces of darkness, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t try. He tells his friends, “All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because I don't think people should suffer, as they do. If there is no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.”

Angel realized he wasn’t able to heal the whole world, but he could continue to work to repair the world. The idea of repairing the world is a Jewish concept, and in The Ethics of Our Fathers, Rabbi Tarfon wrote, “You are not obligated to complete the work of repairing the world, but neither are you free to abandon it.” That is the way of life John the Baptist proclaimed in his baptism of repentance.

John was calling the people to repent, to turn around and begin again the work of repairing the world. “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.” Repair the hurt and brokenness you see in the world. Turn from despair, and hold onto hope. Turn from being overcome by the suffering of the world, and join in the work of repair.

Find hope as well, John proclaimed, when you are overcome by the enormity of the suffering of the world. Find hope because the work is not ours to do alone, nor ours to finish. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” There will be a final victory over all evil. Eventually, all suffering and evil will be destroyed, but that ultimate victory isn’t our work to do. That isn’t our victory to win. That’s Jesus’ victory to win. So as you work to repair the world, do not be overcome by the enormity of the suffering in the world. Remember, “You are not obligated to complete the work of repairing the world, but neither are you free to abandon it.” Not even when you mess up.

We are going to mess up and mess up big time as we work to repair the world. In the words of Leonard Cohen. “Love is not a victory march. It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.” We also mess up and repent as we go. We continue to follow John’s call to repentance, to turning around and beginning ever again the work of repairing the world, including repairing the world from the damage we cause.

Last week, I caused damage right out in front of Lord of the Streets. There have been a lot of people driving around supposedly signing people up for health insurance, taking social security numbers, and in reality, they’re just scamming folks, getting their information and selling it, or signing people up for insurance that won’t actually work for them.

I was tired of seeing this happen, so when a pink van pulled up outside of Lord of the Streets, I had had enough. I began shouting at them to move on, to get the hell out of there. I was disrupting all they were trying to do. As they tried to explain that they were a legitimate business, I would hear none of it and shouted all the more for them to go. Eventually they did.

It turns out, they actually are legitimate, and I was terrible to them. Whether the insurance they’re signing people up for is good or not, I have no idea, and that’s not even the point. I was out of control, shouting, angry, adding suffering to the suffering of the world. Sure, my intentions were good, but I also really wanted a victory. I was overcome by the suffering of the world, and I wanted to win. I wanted to defeat the powers of darkness, so in that moment, I became darkness. “Love is not a victory march; it’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.”

So now, it’s time for repentance: doing what I can to heal the damage I caused. I called the company and let them know what I’d done, and I asked if they could pass on to their employees who were there that I was wrong and that I was sorry. Now I’m here in public declaring that the pink van insurance people may or may not be really helping folks, but they are a legitimate business, not scammers. 

Following John’s call to make straight in the desert a highway for our God, we do our best in a broken world, often failing, often having no idea what the right thing to do is. So, we repent as we go, and we do so with God’s help. We are not alone in working to repair the world. We are not alone in the darkness of the world, for “The light [of God] shines in the darkness, and the darkness [does] not overcome it.” (John 1:5)

For us as followers of Jesus, there is an ultimate victory of Jesus over all evil in the world. It’s just not our victory to win. So, rather than be overcome by the enormity of the work, realize that every bit of good we do matters. Every bit of healing and repair we bring matters. Even though we don’t bring the ultimate victory, we get to help, simply because we can, because people shouldn’t suffer, as they do. Repairing the world is a cold and broken hallelujah. It’s work we cannot complete, but it is work that, with God’s help, is our privilege to get to do.